Beetle House LA in Hollywood & Disneyland 2017
Since we had already been to Disneyland Hong Kong, Disneyland Shanghai and DisneyWorld in Florida all in 2017, Glen & I decided to use our only free weekend between Halloween and New Years for a quick road trip down to the original Disneyland to make it an even FOUR Disney Resorts in one year! On the way we had dinner at Beetle House LA, a Hollywood Blvd nightclub run by Tim Burton fans, complete with decor, themed menus, costumed actors, and even a freak show in the dining room that was all really fun!
We made it straight from Santa Clara to Beetle House LA on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and made it into 10pm dinner! The first actor I saw was a pitch-perfect Edward Scissorhands and Catwoman photobomed us! I’m drinking a Big Fish complete with dry ice and Swedish Fish candies and Glen is enjoying a fall spiced This Is Halloween cocktail! So many compliments on our Jack Skellington shirts from guests and employees alike! More photos after dinner…
Dinner at Beetle House LA was fun and we saw two rounds of the freak show!
We strolled to Hollywood & Vine where the Apollo moon landing crew’s “star” and the vintage round Capitol Records building are, and saw that Alec Baldwin’s star was one door over from Beetle House and Bela Lugosi’s star was across the street. Sadly Grauman’s Chinese theatre with the gilded pagoda designs and all the footprints & handprints seems to be walled in or rebuilt now, since I remember it being out in the open in 1990. This was Glen’s first trip to Hollywood and we couldn’t even see the Hollywood sign since it isn’t lighted at night!
Radiator Springs FastPasses acquired and now in our first line of the day…Guardians of the Galaxy!
We saw Groot leaving for a break and now we are at Haunted Mansion Holiday!!!
We got a castle photo then met Melanie & Mac for lunch at Carthay Circle…delicious food & tasty cocktails in a classy reproduction of the Carthay Circle in old Hollywood. Our waitress has been hiding a tiny Woody figure around the restaurant…heehee!
Melanie & Mac did their own thing while we used our FastPass for Cars Land Radiator Springs Racers…still some of the best animatronics in Anaheim!
Glen wants to make some miniature moving displays like in the windows on Main Street…really well done with even a mini-Peppers illusion for Cinderella!
We met up with Melanie & Mac again for Dole Whip then Pirates…still a classic at fifty years old!
We shopped a bit at the Haunted Mansion store, rode Roger Rabbit, then the Small World ride line was a full 2 HOURS (but has a cool projection overlay show every 15 minutes), so Melanie & Mac left for home while we found some dinner. Thanks for a fun afternoon catching up!
We squeezed in the crowd but unfortunately behind a tree for Fantasmic, then rushed to the fireworks in the giant crowd halfway down Main Street. We couldn’t see the castle projections as well but we saw the fireworks just fine…and there was “snow”! ❄️
We made it back to the Haunted Mansion after dark, and I took some photos and video this time, especially of the Hat Box Ghost which we had never seen before today! I still absolutely love the ice angels and the pumpkin chorus. This year the giant gingerbread house in the ballroom has motorized moving parts (I’ve done that before myself!), Sally is now full-size in the graveyard wistfully watching Santa Jack, and there is a cute spider holding a tiny wrapped present as the Doombuggies climb the hill…
We got on Indiana Jones with a Fast Pass from dinnertime, then with one hour left to closing, we stood in line for almost an hour for Small World since Glen had never seen it decorated for Christmas. The fancy Swedish Lucia Bride with candle wreath on her head is still at the end, and the mermaids sing Jingle Shells…haha…
On our way out of Disneyland we got a snack and saw the Concert Orchestrion, built in 1907 and inside the Penny Arcade since Disneyland’s opening in 1955…I’d never noticed it before but it started playing as we walked by…amazing it’s over a century old! I got artsy with reflections in a giant ornament on the Main Street Christmas tree, and new Frozen stuff is out from the new short opening Wednesday with Coco…sure wish that cute Olaf & Elsa sweater pattern was made for big people! Anna & Elsa’s Boutique in Downtown Disney, where I was mobbed for photos as Elsa in 2014, is now the Dream Boutique but with Elsa’s new winter outfit in the window. Glen already fell asleep still in his clothes, well-deserved after almost 19,000 steps today!
We needed the sleep so by 11am we were dressed, packed, checked out, luggage stored, and finally eating along the Festival of Holidays in California Adventure on our way to Disneyland for day 2!
We got a 4:30 FastPass for Space Mountain then strolled through Star Wars Launch Bay…almost exactly the same as Disneyland Shanghai but with enough people that we didn’t want to stand in line for photos for Vader, Kylo Ren or any Wookies, but the toy BB-8 photo op in the gift shop was pretty cute for kids.
We rode Alice in Wonderland because neither of us had seen it. New projections hidden between old-school moving figures are nicely done. Now in getting us Dole Whip while Glen gets a head start toward Haunted Mansion, since we still can’t get another FastPass yet but everything is assigning times after we have to drive home. Even more people today than yesterday afternoon!
It took about 80 minutes in the standby line but we got on Haunted Mansion Holiday again! Only 3 times this trip since lines have been sooo long and FastPasses are going so quickly.
Even 20 minutes before showtime the nosebleed balcony was all that was left for the hour-long live Frozen show, but we could still see the amazing effects, it was cool how the magic and scenery often extended onto the theatre walls, and the Olaf and Sven puppets were fantastic. Elsa changed her own dress on the ice stairs during Let It Go, and Anna’s heroic moment turning to ice was an extremely clever projection effect on white cloak. Definitely worth seeing!
Back into Disneyland to use our only Fast Pass of the day for Space Mountain, by way of a quick & relatively healthy dinner at Plaza Inn…Last ride of our last day, and sadly this was the only coaster we rode all weekend!
Some cute items while shopping on the way out of Disney tonight…Star Wars “poodle” skirts, blueprint mugs, cute phrase tees, and a glass dragon over a cute castle…
Before turning the corner back to our car, as I was sighing in the Dream Boutique that they never have anything for big princesses, the door greeter said just a few shops down was the Disney Dress Shop…hooray! The tiki dress, stripey pirates, Tower of Terror bellhop and apple dresses from the Orlando May launch were all there, including my Haunted Mansion dress I wore yesterday, plus new designs! I had to try the most princessy dress even though it wasn’t my color, and you must pay attention to the embroidered slippers and pumpkin carriage that are echoed on the bottom hem. 😉 Glen really liked the Cinderella dress on me but agreed “where would you wear it?” I tried on an aqua teacup dress and Belle’s bookshelf which didn’t fit my body type at all, but I bought the new blue & black ghostly ballroom Haunted Mansion dress that the shop said was only released a couple weeks ago…and that one has POCKETS! 😀
Thanks to our Costco Travel package we got a full digital PhotoPass collection plus some free prints, so we actually stood in lines this trip and got some really cute photos, many posed by the photographer. I figured this was practice taking direction for wedding photos? 😉 I won’t be able to access the full digital set until we get home, but we are already almost to Bakersfield so that won’t be too much longer. Thanks to Disney for another fun trip! We made it to 4 different Disney Parks around the globe in 2017 and enjoyed them all! 😀
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